Analyzing Manifestos in their Electoral Context A New Approach Applied to Austria, 2002–2008

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 641-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Dolezal ◽  
Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik ◽  
Wolfgang C. Müller ◽  
Anna Katharina Winkler
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Elections ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Hierarchical Coding ◽  
Coding Scheme ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Measurement Strategies

We present a new method to analyze party manifestos to benefit the placement of political partiesper seand to advance the study of elections. Our method improves on existing manual coding approaches by (1) generating semantically complete units based on syntax, (2) standardizing units into a subject–predicate–object structure, and (3) employing a fine-grained and flexible hierarchical coding scheme. We evaluate our approach by comparing estimates for the 2002, 2006, and 2008 Austrian national elections with those yielded by previous studies that employ the entire range of available measurement strategies. We also demonstrate how we link our new manifesto data with other kind of data produced in theAustrian National Election Study, especially mass and elite (party candidate) surveys.

The Religious Divide in Voting Preferences and Attitudes in the 2019 Election

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyas Sardesai
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Election Result ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Bharatiya Janata Party ◽  
The Government

This article attempts to empirically test the claims made by several commentators that religious polarization was at the core of the 2019 Lok Sabha election verdict. Relying heavily on the National Election Study (NES) data sets, it finds that the election result was in large measure an outcome of massive vote consolidation on religious lines, with the majority Hindu community preferring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in unprecedented proportion and the main religious minorities largely staying away from it, although there were some exceptions. It shows that, for two national elections in a row, the Narendra Modi- and Amit Shah-led BJP has been able to overcome the caste hierarchies among Hindus and systematically construct a Hindu category of voters versus others. This chasm between Hindus and the minorities is also seen with respect to their attitudes regarding the government, its leadership and contentious issues like the Ayodhya dispute. This article, however, does not find sufficient evidence with regard to the claims that a large part of the Hindu support for the BJP-led alliance may have been on account of anti-minority sentiments.

The Decline of Political Partisanship in the United States: Negativity or Neutrality?

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 941-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Wattenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Study Data ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Major Trend ◽  
Party Decline

This article examines attitudes towards the two major political parties in the United States from 1952 to 1980, using national election study data from open-ended likes/dislikes questions. The major trend which is found is a shift toward neutral evaluations of the parties. A reinterpretation of party decline in the electorate is offered, in which the much-discussed alienation from parties is largely rejected as an explanation. Rather, it is argued that the link between parties and candidates has been substantially weakened over the years and hence that political parties have become increasingly meaningless to the electorate.

scholarly journals Mapping the Austrian political spectrum with the help of VAAs

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sebastian Jäckle ◽  
Pascal D. König
Keyword(s):  
Multidimensional Scaling ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Present Form ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Elections ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Weighting Procedures

This paper uses data from the Austrian Voting Advice Application (VAA) wahlkabine.at to locate parties in policy spaces for the 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2017 national elections. It formulates an approach that combines positional information from the VAA data with information about issue saliences that stems from the VAA itself as well as from manifestos coded by the regularly conducted Austrian National Election Study. The VAA-inherent and the external weights serve to calibrate party policy spaces that underlie the VAA data. The paper depicts the Austrian political party space by means of a two-dimensional multidimensional scaling (MDS) map, and furthermore assesses the usefulness of the two weighting procedures. The findings suggest that the use of the internal weights cannot make much of a difference in the present form. In contrast, the external weights not only alter the structure of the party space but also enhance the confidence in the results for substantial reasons.

Different emphases, same positions? The election manifestos of political parties in the EU multilevel electoral system compared

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 640-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Braun ◽  
Hermann Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Issue Emphasis ◽  
The Eu

Political parties increasingly operate at multiple political levels. Nevertheless, we do not yet know much about the consequences of these multilevel electoral systems (MLESs) on party behaviour. To fill this gap, we examine party manifestos for European Parliament (EP) elections and compare them with party manifestos for national elections. Using manifesto data and covering 15 European Union (EU) countries between 1979 and 2014, we focus on European issues and ask whether parties’ issue emphasis and the positions they take are the same in both kinds of documents and respectively at both levels of the MLES. We show that although parties put more emphasis on EU issues in EP than in national elections, they behave sincerely regarding their position towards the EU – these are very similar irrespective of the electoral context. As many elections take place in MLES environments, in Europe, in particular, but far beyond, this noteworthy finding is highly relevant for scholars of party competition in general and even more instructive for the so far fragmented literature exploring the implications of MLESs.

scholarly journals When Does Income Inequality Cause Polarization?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
The Right ◽  
Issue Content

Scholars have long been concerned with the implications of income inequality for democracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that high income inequality is associated with political parties taking polarized positions as the left advocates for increased redistribution while the right aims to entrench the position of economic elites. This article argues that the connection between party positions and income inequality depends on how party bases are sorted by income and the issue content of national elections. It uses data from European national elections from 1996 to 2016 to show that income inequality has a positive relationship with party polarization on economic issues when partisans are sorted with respect to income and when economic issues are relatively salient in elections. When these factors are weak, however, the author finds no relationship between income inequality and polarization.

Polish Elections 1919-1928

Slavic Review ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Groth
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Life ◽  
National Elections ◽  
The World ◽  
Cast Doubt

Much valuable information on the dynamics of Poland's political life between the world wars is still to be uncovered in the records of national elections. Of particular interest are the contests of 1919, 1922, and 1928, since in all of these elections political parties were still allowed to participate directly (as they were not in 1935 and 1938), and governmental restraint and manipulation were not yet so massive as to cast doubt on the entire result (as in 1930).

Did They Mind the Gap? Voter/Party Ideological Proximity between the BQ, the NDP and Quebec Voters, 2006–2011

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Gauvin ◽  
Chris Chhim ◽  
Mike Medeiros
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Federal Election ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Longitudinal Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe 2011 Canadian federal election results changed the face of federal politics in Quebec. In a sudden and spectacular reversal of electoral fortunes, BQ support crumbled while that of the NDP surged. While most commentators focused exclusively on the 2011 election itself to explain what had happened, we offer an interpretation that takes a longitudinal approach. Using data from the Canadian Election Study and political party manifestos from 2006 to 2011, we propose a three-dimensional proximity model of voter/party congruence to explore the evolution of the ideological stances of Quebec voters and parties. Empirical results suggest these ideological distances between the NDP and Quebec voters decreased over time, whereas the BQ has distanced itself from voters. Furthermore, ideological distances between party and voters are a significant predictor of vote.

Interaction on Instagram?

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Paper Analysis ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Social Media Platforms

This paper directs attention to the use of Instagram by political parties in the Swedish national elections in 2014. It investigates how political parties made use of Instagram – a platform centered around images – when engaging in interaction with their followers on the platform. Therefore, the paper analysis Instagram images including their captions and comments (posts) that Swedish parties have published four weeks prior to Election Day. A particular focus is on the deliberative potential of Instagram. The results suggest that not much changes on Instagram compared to other social media platforms: Political parties hardly used Instagram to interact with their followers and the few interactions taking place on parties Instagram accounts did not contribute to the exchange of relevant and substantive information about politics (i.e., deliberation). Interaction and deliberation is also not enhanced by the images.

Competing Visions of Parental Roles and Ideological Constraint

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID C. BARKER ◽  
JAMES D. TINNICK
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Parental Roles ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
Proper Power ◽  
Using Data

This paper explores the etiology of ideological constraint in the United States. In an effort to gain understanding of the ideational elements of political socialization, we concentrate on a provocative new theory put forward by cognitive linguist George Lakoff. Lakoff argues that many people reflexively envision proper power relations between citizens and government based on their understanding of proper power relations between children and parents: “nurturant” visions of parental roles engender egalitarian and humanitarian political values, whereas “disciplinarian” visions of proper parenting predict political individualism and traditionalism. Using data obtained from the 2000 National Election Study, we consider the empirical mettle of this account.

The effects of party identification on perceptions of pledge fulfilment: Evidence from Portugal

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Belchior
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Research

Empirical research has found that, despite citizens’ perceptions to the contrary, political parties tend to deliver on their campaign promises. What are the reasons for this mismatch between perceptions and performance? Research to date has paid insufficient attention to the reasons for such a mismatch, neglecting the effects of political predispositions such as party identification and sympathy for the government. This article argues that it is such political predispositions that cause biased perceptions of pledge fulfilment. Bias towards perceiving pledges as unfulfilled is expected to be higher for voters whose political predispositions are more unfavourable to government. The argument is supported by data on Portuguese voters and party manifestos in the 2011 election, contributing to better understanding of the mechanisms of political accountability.

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